Steve and Kayla lived every day with one goal in mind, and that was to have this baby. Her pregnancy wasn’t any longer than any other normal pregnancy, but they were uniquely impatient, and it felt like their daughter sure did take her sweet time getting there. All they could really do was live and wait and get one day closer with each morning. So, they led the lives they’d jumped into. Kayla tried to find enjoyment working at the Emergency Center and faked it well, but it was a struggle to not be a doctor. Sometimes she was given a wide berth in treating patients, but some doctors, like Brad Windsor, wouldn’t have it. It frustrated her to no end, but she played her part and did it well, no one noticing the shift in her demeanor when her rightful physician was stifled. Except for Marcus. Never a day went by when he and Kayla overlapped did he fail to notice the depth of her knowledge. He finally called her on it one day and crossed his arms onerously when she dodged him, refusing to let drop how she was able to make one elusive diagnosis after another. It was then that he saw the weariness in her face for the very first time. It wasn’t general fatigue or anything physical, it was almost as if her resolve had slipped – like a flawless mask almost identical to her actual visage had momentarily slid off her face to reveal the real one before quickly moving back into place to continue its pretense. He backed off, but that unexpected reaction made him start paying even more attention. He mentioned it to Steve and about fell over when he dodged him, too. This wasn’t like either of them, and it worried him. So, he finally dropped it … but he continued observing them.
Steve, on the other hand, had lost his resolve a lot more quickly. Working on the Community Center had not captured Steve’s attention like he’d pined for it to, because this project went much differently with his brother than the low income housing project had. Whereas the former went smoothly, the latter did not. The original property wasn’t going to work out, as it was wrapped up in red tape that wouldn’t exist by 1989. This meant that Steve had to search for a new property, and doing this did not bring in any income. Kayla’s job was enough to support them, but Steve wasn’t interested in the business side of things that he was suddenly thrust into; he wanted to get with the planning and programs and outreach. The lack of anything tangible – no breaking ground, no property identified – meant that Jack wasn’t winning Riverfront support so easily this time, and that made working at the Deveraux house exceedingly unpleasant. His mind constantly drifted to things he didn’t want to think about. Like what would happen when they jumped. And if he’d ever meet his daughter. And what he’d do when he lost her.
Little did he know, however, that it was the tedious and boring job of finding a location for the Community Center that would lead to an emotional salvation for them both. It was while looking at foreclosure land to relocate the site that Steve sat up with an attention that made his heart pound in his chest. One address on the list of foreclosed properties in Salem positively stuck out. For a moment he was in shock and didn’t move a muscle. When he willed his legs to move, he stood up like a shot, grabbed his leather jacket, and tore out of Jack’s livingroom to drive out there and see it for himself. Sure enough, their house – the one they shared when he’d died in 1990, the same one they’d shared secretly in 1979, and the one he hoped to God that one day he’d live in again if they ever got back to 2009 – was sitting there in a familiar state of disrepair waiting for someone to buy it back from the bank here in 1988. The last time he’d been here, a Dodge Dart sat hidden at the top of the driveway. It took all his willpower not to go in. He had no idea how it would get into Nick Corelli’s hands next year, but right now, it belonged to a bank. He ran to the Emergency Center to tell Kayla, and she squealed at the news.
“You’re kidding!”
“I’m not, baby, I’m not kidding! I am not f*cking kidding, I couldn’t be any more serious!”
“Are you sure?”
Steve leered. “You doubt me?”
“Ho … how? I thought Nick—”
“I thought Nick, too, but we thought wrong, right now it’s in foreclosure.”
“We have to buy it!”
“Damn straight, we have to buy it, Sweetness! That’s our house, and I’m gonna do whatever I gotta do to get it back!”
As it happened, it didn’t take much. The thing was as much of a money pit today as it was when Corelli would give it to them a year from now, so the asking price was far lower than it was worth by the time they were done with it. Even so, they still didn’t have enough money for a down payment, so they did something that they’d never done before in the history of their relationship. They asked someone to loan them money. Marcus was never happier to help his best friends.
At the end of January, Steve and Kayla set a new record for longest jump. They also said goodbye to the loft – which really wasn’t very hard, because in no way did this goodbye feel very final – and, once again, moved into their house. As if fate was calling, the moment they walked over the threshold of the front door, their baby girl kicked, and she kicked hard. Steve dropped the box he’d walked in with when Kayla’s arm shot out to prop herself against the stairwell, but he relaxed when he saw the smile light up her face. “The baby is doing cartwheels, Steve. I think she knows she’s home.” Steve laughed when he felt his baby’s movements and decided she was going to be the first female kicker in the NFL.
On February 19th Kayla woke up and immediately felt a pang of deep homesickness for her daughter. Stephanie was turning 19 today. She grew up to be exactly as passionate and reckless and brilliant and funny as her father. And she missed her first born desperately from the moment she opened her eyes that morning. Steve comforted her, but later on when they were both at work, he needed a little comfort of his own. Jack had said something to him, and for a moment he was reminded of a conversation they’d had on Steve’s front porch when Jack was suffering from his identity crisis. He remembered her baby face and grinned with the remembrance of how it became the beautiful young woman he’d last seen when he held her in Joey’s room in their apartment. On the way home that night, Steve stopped at the bakery and picked up a cake. He didn’t know what made him do it, but he did know that he was tired of grieving and unconsciously decided that celebrating would be better. So, he got her favorite, chocolate with chocolate fudge frosting (she’s just like her mama), and told Marcus to come over. Steve made a big dinner, and when Kayla came home she found Marcus in the under-construction livingroom, and an aroma of homemade pizza in the air.
“What’s all this?” she asked as she gave Marcus a peck on the cheek.
“I’ve been asking your husband that for an hour, and he still won’t tell me.”
“Hey Sweetness!” Steve called from the kitchen, “have a seat, I’ll bring dinner out to you!”
“In the livingroom?” she asked. Marcus shrugged. “Don’t ask me, you married him.”
“That I did,” she smiled.
Steve showed up with three plates served up with pizza and garlic bread, and they didn’t waste any time before diving in. “Man, you missed your calling,” Marcus said with a mouth full of pizza. “You can really cook, brother. So, what’s the occasion?”
Steve looked at Kayla and said, “We’re celebrating someone’s birthday.” Kayla’s mouth parted, and her eyes misted.
“Thanks,” Marcus said a bit awkwardly, “but, uh, you’re a month early.”
“Not you, Homey,” Steve said softly. “Her name is Stephanie.”
“Stephanie?” Marcus took another bite of his pizza and took on a thoughtful look. “Do I know her?”
“No,” Steve’s voice cracked just slightly, and Marcus suddenly took notice of more of the odd behavior he observed now and again in his best friends. “One day you will. She’s someone Kayla and me don’t really talk about to other people, but we … I … don’t want to forget her. So, today’s her birthday.”
“Steve,” Kayla mouthed with love in her eyes.
Marcus put down his plate. “Is Stephanie part of your secret code?”
Steve shifted just his eyes toward Marcus, his face still turned toward his wife. “Come again?”
“You two are really somethin’ else, you know that? You have this way you talk sometimes that only you two seem to understand. You think I don’t notice? So, you wanna tell me what that’s all about?”
Steve grinned. “No, Homey, we don’t. But, yeah, Stephanie’s part of that.”
Marcus threw up his arms and cocked his head at Kayla, but she shook her head. “No code that I know of,” she finally said.
“Oh please.” Then he picked his plate back up and leaned back heavily against the armchair as he tore off a piece of garlic bread with his teeth. Kayla leaned over and kissed her husband sweetly and felt a real happiness flutter through her.
The celebration was exactly what Steve knew it would be – a spirit-lifter. He brought out the cake, lit all 19 candles, and all three of them blew them out even as Marcus chuckled at the weirdness of his two best friends. Kayla ate so much of it she was sick afterward, but it was worth it.
When Marcus left Kayla wrapped her arms around Steve’s neck, their youngest child reacting to the sugar rush between them. “That was inspired, Steve. What made you think of that?”
“I don’t know, baby, I really don’t. I just missed her. And I didn’t want to let her birthday go by. We let Joey’s go by in 1979. I don’t wanna miss any more of their birthdays. I don’t care what people think, they’re our kids, they exist. And I trust Marcus.”
Kayla nodded solemnly. “You’re such an amazing man. I love you.”
“I love you more.”
Life went on. Kayla continued being a nurse, Steve continued working with Jack, but it was the house that actually kept them going. It gave them an immensely needed distraction and real goal. It also gave them a sense of normalcy that made, literally, all the difference as they waited for the imminent arrival, the imminent departures being finally and truly back burnered. The first thing Steve did was fix the broken window that they’d first discovered so many jumps ago and then used regularly as a means of entrance and exit in 1979. The accomplishment he felt in fixing that window was like elixir. He couldn’t explain why it made him feel so peaceful to have replaced the panes of glass, clean up the dirt and chipped paint, and then install a new latch; but the act of doing so made him feel good. And it was only the beginning. Every room in that house needed attention, and even though they were short on funds, they somehow found a way to clean up and fix each room into passability one at a time. They worked tirelessly on the house they both loved so much, and they loved every moment they spent doing it. They loved being there, legitimately living in it, going to sleep in their bed and waking up in it. And they reveled in making it worthy of their baby.
One day in her sixth month, Kayla watched as her husband painted the kitchen. He was smiling and humming a tune that she recognized as being older than either of them, and her heart swelled with love for him. His pride was so apparent, and so was the peace he’d finally begun to feel. His muscles rippled as he worked, his nipple poking through the hole of his favorite black tank top that he refused to get rid of and was happy to see whenever he jumped to it. Kayla’s mouth watered. He looked delicious. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d gone to him and wrapped him into her embrace. Steve put down the paint roller and chuckled at her sudden outpouring. He took off his work gloves and ran his fingers though her soft hair.
“What’d I do to deserve this, baby?” he asked her. She could hear the smile on his face.
“You take care of me. Us. All of us. No matter what’s happening, you always manage to take such good care of the people you love.”
“Oh, Sweetness. I’ll never not take care of you.” Kayla’s pulse raced at these words. They weren’t words he’d never said before, but they made her heart pound. Steve felt it and saw the look in his wife’s eye. “Oh, baby.” Kayla’s tongue darted out to moisten her bottom lip. “You’re horny.”
“Oh yeah,” she breathed. They captured each other in a tongue-filled kiss that very quickly built into something very carnal. They ate at each other’s mouths, and the hands that had been entwined in Kayla’s hair began gripping it fiercely. He pulled her head to the side to expose the tender flesh of her neck and attacked. Kayla moaned as Steve sucked the flesh of her neck into his hot mouth, her reactions hardening him and turning her core wet. It was late morning, and Kayla was still in her robe. So she untied it and let it fall to the floor, her naked skin warm beneath the palm Steve was now rubbing down the small of her back over her buttocks.
“Watching me paint the kitchen turns you on, Sweetness?”
“Yes. I want to watch you paint every room. Then when you least expect it I’m going to attack you.”
“Oh, baby, is that a promise?” He squeezed her ass.
Kayla smiled like a devil. “Don’t tempt me,” she panted.
“Oh, I want to tempt you, Kayla. I want to be attacked.” He reached down and unzipped his jeans, which were already unbuttoned, the fine hairs that led down below his navel showing just above the zipper. Then he moved his fingers to her swollen nub and flicked it. “So wet,” he whispered.
In a swift move, Kayla fell to her knees, tugged Steve’s jeans down hard, and released his steel cock, letting it bounce toward her. Steve filled his hands with the back of his wife’s head at the same time that she filled her hands with her husband’s ass. Then she took his erection into her mouth and sucked hard. Steve’s throaty moan was loud, and it made her release more wetness just to hear the pleasure she gave him.
“Suck me, Kayla. Please, baby … oh, yeah, just like that, you suck me!”
Kayla did as she was told, and the power her lips and tongue had over his cock made her heady. She remembered what he said about how good the orgasms her mouth gave him felt, and she wanted to do that for him now. She was so turned on by the love this man had for her and his reaction to her that she would not be denied giving him the pleasure she wanted him to have.
“Remember the plane, Steve?”
“Yeah, baby,” he grunted.
“Remember the best blow job I ever gave you in that airplane seat?” she cooed between swirls of her tongue to his sensitively swollen head.”
“Don’t talk, baby, lick.”
“I’m gonna make you feel like that again.”
Steve’s cock pulsated while her lips hummed around him. She sucked hard as she fondled his balls, and Steve gasped. He started to thrust into her mouth, but then he stopped. “I have to taste you. I have to!” He pulled Kayla up off the floor, kicked his jeans all the way off, then pulled her into his arms and carried her to the livingroom. He set her down to stand in front of the couch, the look in his eye so hungry it was dangerous.
“Sit,” he commanded, and she lowered her naked body onto it. Then Steve got onto his knees facing her lifted her legs over his shoulder, and parted her labia with his tongue. “You’re so wet, baby. You’re so damned wet for me.”
“No fair,” she whimpered.
“Oh, this is very fair. Now give me your pussy, I haven’t eaten anything yet this morning.” Steve was the one now feeling the power of being the pleasure-giver. He spread her legs wide, parted her folds with his thumbs, and flicked his tongue over her clit relentlessly.
“More … more … right there … yes, Steve, oh … don’t stop!” Her climax was right in front of her. Just as Steve felt his wife begin to writhe, he stopped and sat back with an arrogant look on his face. “I need to come!”
“You will, baby, I’m gonna give it to you.”
“Now!”
“Not yet.” Kayla swore, and Steve smiled. “I promise I’m gonna give it to you, baby.” Steve replaced his tongue with his finger, and Kayla’s head lolled back as she slowly closed her eyes to the return of her building orgasm. But then he removed his fingers and rubbed her slickness over each of Kayla’s dusky nipples. “I made you come by sucking on these once. Do you remember?”
“Yes! Do it again.”
Steve did as he was told, now, and sucked her left breast into his mouth, sucking hard on her nipple and licking unyieldingly at her areola, snaking his tongue around them. He gave one breast his undivided oral attention while rolling the nipple of her other breast in his fingers, then switched. Kayla moaned, her coital cries filling the old house.
Steve pulled back and shifted positions. Kayla started to move, too, but he firmly kept his hand on her shoulder. He straddled her thighs with one knee on each side of her on the couch and looked down upon her like she was a five-course meal. “I need you to blow me some more,” he said, his voice gravely with sexual need. Then he held his rigid cock out for her in his hand.
“You want me to suck?” Kayla teased.
“Yeah, I want you to suck.”
Kayla wrapped her lips around her husband’s penis, held onto it at the base, and very slowly sucked him hard as far into her mouth as she could. The sweet sexual pleasure was unbearable, and Steve grunted out his need to come as he, once again, began thrusting his hips into her face. He felt her smile around him, and he saw her intent. He loved her so much he couldn’t take it. “Oh, baby. Ahh … ah … baby … you’re making me come!” Kayla’s lips vibrated around her husband’s steel flesh, and she could feel this was going to be the final moment before he finally fell off the edge. Just before he filled her mouth, he took her face in his hands and ever so slightly tipped it up so she’d meet his eyes. “I love you,” he mouthed, for he could not find the breath to give the words voice, then he came hard as he locked onto her sparkling blue eyes. He grunted, and the orgasm was powerful, but his grip on Kayla’s face was gentle even as it was firm. Kayla loved watching Steve’s face when his release finally took him. It was so full of unbelievable pleasure, and the love on his lips was reflected in the soul she saw through his deep green eye. She wanted to give him just a little bit more, though, so she ran her firms fingers over his ballsac as she swallowed, knowing those movements would milk more pulses of pleasure out of him.
Finally, Steve gently pulled out, and collapsed to sit beside his wife. He pulled her on top of him so that they’d shifted positions, and he he buried his face in her breasts. “I love you, baby, God, I love you so much. That was incredible, Kayla.” He rubbed his face against her breasts and licked at them as Kayla let out a pleased chuckle. “Kayla … oh, Sweetness …” He kissed her belly over and over, then buried his face back in her breasts again. This time he was the one who was burrowing as she held him close, wrapping her hand around the back of his head.
“Felt good, huh?” she cooed.
“Incredible. I mean it, baby, I’m gonna paint every room any way you want me to if it’s gonna get me that kind of reaction out of you.”
Before Kayla could say that he didn’t have to paint anything to get that kind of reaction, she felt his fingers slide up inside of her wetness. He didn’t say anything, but his mouth ate at her tits with abandon, and his fingers plundered her like a marauder. He bit at her nipples as his fingers stroked her core, wetness pouring into his hand while his thumb pressed ungently on her tight little clit. He saw the pleasure build in her beautiful face that she showed only to him, and he knew she was ready to explode. “Now, Kayla … now you’re gonna come for me. And you’re gonna come real hard. I wanna feel you come with my fingers inside you, Kayla. Come!”
Again, Kayla did as she was told, and it was sexual bliss. The look on Kayla’s face was so sexy and beautiful, that Steve felt himself harden again. He knew this body was young enough to be capable of such things and had experienced it several times, but each time he was ready so quickly after he’d finished made him that much hornier.
“How’s that feel, baby, feel good?”
“Mmm …” Kayla let the pleasure hum lazily from her lips. “Yes … So good, Steve …” She blinked slowly with the deep pleasure that came directly after the intensity of the orgasmic rush.
“You want more?” Kayla’s eyes shot open in disbelief. “Because I need you again.”
“Put it in me!” she demanded, her sexual energy suddenly new again. “Inside me!”
“Turn around!”
Kayla stood up on shaky legs and turned. She leaned forward slightly as Steve felt for her opening, then as the last of Kayla’s orgasm ebbed inside of her, Steve guided himself inside of her. Kayla worked his cock within her slick walls, and all Steve could do was grunt with every thrust.
“Harder! Steve, harder!” He pumped up into her as she milked him.
“Your pussy needs it harder? Or you just need to feel me deeper?” Steve slid deeper into the couch and leaned Kayla forward a bit more, allowing him much greater penetration. “Oh, sh*t! That’s … good … baby … yeah!” Steve supported Kayla with his very strong arms holding on to each of her breasts and ran his thumbs over her tight nipples as she glided up and down.
“Don’t stop!” She cried out and whimpered and needed release so badly. But Steve was still stimulated from his last climax, so his next one was going to come very quickly.
“I’m not gonna last, baby. You need to come quick. Don’t stop till you come! You f*ck my cock hard until you come, Kayla!”
“If you want me to come, you better m-make me!” But he didn’t have to do anything more, because without warning she erupted and began quaking and shuddering under his firm grip. She moaned and screamed out her husband’s name when the orgasm crashed over her, and it only intensified as she felt Steve do the same. “I love you, Steve!” she cried out. He gripped her upper arms as the white hot cum poured into her. He’d let go of her breasts at the last minute to grab her arms instead, because he knew he had to hold on tight and that it would hurt her very sensitive breasts. She felt this gesture just as intensely as she felt the orgasm rip through her, and her love for her husband overwhelmed her.
Kayla stayed attached to Steve but laid back against him as he laid back against the back of the couch. She turned her head as it rested on his shoulder and placed tender, loving kisses on his neck. “Do you know how much I love you?” Kayla asked softly.
“I think I do, Sweeetness, but I want you to tell me every day. I never get tired of hearing that you love me.”
“I do,” she laughed. “I love you so very, very much.”
Steve suddenly got very quiet. “Sometimes I get scared of how much I love you.”
Kayla sat up slightly to look at him. “Why?”
“I just took you so hard, Kayla. You’re pregnant with our baby, and I took you rough and hard, because I couldn’t control how much I had to make you feel it.” Kayla carefully disengaged from Steve’s deflating penis and turned to sit across his lap, all that love they’d just shown each other evidenced across their naked bodies. But she curled up, and he held her against him.
“You’re afraid you hurt the baby.”
Steve shrugged. “We’ve done this twice before, I know I didn’t.”
She reached up and palmed his face. “You didn’t.”
“I know.”
“But?”
“But what if I did.”
Kayla smiled and burrowed against him. “You did not. I promise.”
Steve was quiet as he caressed her hair away from her face. “I remember having this exact same conversation upstairs in our bed when you were pregnant with Stephanie.”
“Yep, we did.”
“And it feels like we just had it at the apartment when our baby boy was baking in there.” Steve’s other hand began stroking Kayla’s burgeoning belly in soft, circular strokes.”
“Yep, then, too.”
“I know it in my head, but I worry anyway.
“I know,” Kayla said soothingly. “Our baby is fine, she’s sleeping.”
“She’s not moving?”
“The rocking motions put her to sleep every time we make love.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it’s common.”
“I never knew that before.”
“Well, I don’t think I knew that with Stephanie, and with Joe …” Kayla stopped herself short. “It was different with Joe.”
Steve held his wife closer and kissed the top of her head. “So … if I want to do it again—”
“You go right ahead. As a doctor, I’m clearing you to make love to me hot and heavy right up until the day I deliver.”
The word “doctor” actually made Steve feel a little better. Then Steve chuckled. “Sweetness, something tells me you’re not gonna want me touchin’ you by the time you’re ready to deliver.”
He could not have been more wrong.
Kayla’s due date of May 4th came and went with nary a sign of labor, and she was ready to do anything to move it along. The urgency to begin feeling labor actually hit her two weeks earlier. One thing that made this pregnancy different from the others was that Kayla carried this one very high. By late pregnancy when their daughter was active, it would make Kayla alternately gasp for breath with her baby’s head in her ribcage, and have to pee constantly with every kick at her mother’s bladder. On the first day of her 38th week, Kayla knew that she’d turned head-down. She felt huge and clumsy and was absolutely ready to have this baby. Right now. Like most pregnant women in this stage of pregnancy, she was DONE being pregnant. Her body had betrayed her in every way from swollen ankles to heartburn to all the things having your organs squashed together makes happen. Unlike every other pregnant woman who’d ever roamed the earth, however, Kayla had the added threat of imminent departure from this body. They’d long since stopped living every day like it was their last and accepted that it is what it is. They’d forced themselves to discuss it in the beginning, but then they let it fall away. What was there to discuss? Nothing. So, instead, they watched Kayla’s belly grow, fixed up their house, worked with as much fulfillment as they could, and loved each other. But the potential to jump never actually left their periphery, and the closer they got to Kayla’s due date, the more desperate they were to make sure they at least got to meet her.
So, like so many women at their weekly appointment two weeks out from their due date, Kayla sat on her OB’s exam table and cried tears that were equal parts hormonal and physical desperation, yet also uniquely infused with her own urgency to get the baby out before she and Steve were no longer here. Steve held Kayla’s head to his shoulder and looked on pleadingly to Neil as she cried in hysterics.
“You don’t understand!” she sobbed. “We have to get her out now! I need to have her now, please!”
“Kayla, I know you’re uncomfortable, but we don’t induce so early, you know that.”
“Yes, I’m uncormfortable! I can’t breathe, my feet don’t fit in my shoes, and … and … we might not … be …” She looked to Steve for help. Then turned angrily back to her doctor. “She’s done, Neil! I know she’d done!”
“Sweetness …”
“Neil, please,” she went back to begging.
The doctor she’d known for so long yet hadn’t seen for more than a decade even in 2009 stood up from the examination room stool and put a hand on her shoulder as he gave her a genuinely sympathetic look. He’d heard this countless times before. “Babies are done at 40 weeks, Kayla. Let’s see how you’re doing at 39 and a half, ok? Stick it out, take this time to relax.”
“Come on, man, can’t you just—”
“Thirty-nine and a half, Steve. See you in a week unless the baby tells us otherwise. Until then, relax,” he repeated.
Relaxing was the last thing they did, however. Instead they partook in every activity and old wives tale they could think of to get labor to start. Kayla ate spicy food and pineapple every day. His wife was so desperate that it was making him desperate, too, so Steve suggested caster oil, even as it made him sick to think of it. “I remember reading about that online when you were pregnant with Joe. Maybe I can make you a shake with it or somethin’.”
Kayla screwed up her face and Steve thought he saw a hint of green in her complexion. “I want this baby out now, Steve, but even I have to draw a line somewhere.” Apparently, that disgusting method was where her line was drawn.
She also walked every day. Every opportunity there was to park in a farther parking spot, they took it. She and Steve walked up and down the riverfront or through the park most days in those last three weeks of her pregnancy. Well, Steve walked, Kayla kind of waddled.
They also had a lot of sex. While the other methods were questionable, the walking and especially the sex were proven methods of coaxing labor along in some women. So, they had a lot of it. While their purpose was clear, it didn’t hurt that they loved every minute. They gave each other so many orgasms releasing so much pleasure that their bodies were positively alight. They both radiated in a perpetual afterglow that didn’t ebb. Steve feasted on his wife’s sensitive nipples, ate at her clitoris, watched his wife’s beautiful face as she lowered herself onto him, felt her tremble in ecstasy, exploded inside of her over and over, and did not remember another time they’d had so much sex in so little time. When they were together and not running from something, they made love almost every day. But these last weeks were like their honeymoons all over again. And again. And again. And again and again and again. They went at it like bunnies at least twice a day most days, but on several occasions it was more. They were laser focused on getting this baby out, but the closeness and intimacy was wonderful. They couldn’t help but feel so bonded.
And the sex was unbelievably good, too. Steve stimulated every sensitive region of her body, releasing wave after wave of the orgasm-fueled oxytocin that helps bring about uterine contractions. The hormone in Steve’s semen that can help act to soften and open the cervix flooded through Kayla, his orgasms driving her into such a frenzy. Her erogenous zones were so sensitive that Steve was able to give her multiple orgasms at one time every time. The more sex they had, the more sex they wanted, they were so intoxicating to each other as the sex and love pumped through their veins in equal measure. Steve didn’t care how his wife came, as long as she did. He licked her clitoris hard until she shook with orgasm. He fingered her expertly, drawing her into cries of pleasure. He told her how much he loved her while his steeled cock stroked her g-spot, and when he woke up one morning to Kayla’s mouth around his cock, Steve turned them on their sides into the true 69 position Kayla loved so that they could lick and suck each other into oblivion. The exhaustion of pregnancy didn’t wane, however, and that made breaking their record truly impossible. Steve didn’t want Kayla to be sore, either, so he used his tongue and stimulated her g-spot more than rubbing her clit or using his penis. But the times he buried himself inside of her were ecstasy.
Kayla was too intent on her mission to get the baby out to focus too much on her size, which even after all these years and previous pregnancies, did make her feel self-conscious. Steve was fit and solid, and Kayla felt … absolutely huge. She didn’t let that stop her from taking her husband inside of her, but Steve couldn’t actually get any real penetration on top of her, and Kayla missed making love that way, with the safe and secure pressure of him above her. When Steve saw the insecurity flash across her face ever so briefly as Kayla lowered herself onto his shaft one night, he couldn’t let it linger. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and supported her weight with his hands in the small of her back as she began to ride him. He stayed her motions and moved one of those hands up to gently hold her face. “What is it, baby?”
She wanted to tell him it was nothing, but she could see that he knew better and was honest with him instead. “I’m just so big,” she said. Her cheeks were pink, but Steve wasn’t sure if it was from her insecurity or the heat of their foreplay.
“Kayla,” he said compassionately, what have I told you? I love it when you’re big with my babies. This is my baby you’re carrying, Sweetness.” He rubbed her belly in wide strokes, possessively, lovingly. “And this,” he reached back up to Kayla’s breast and caressed her neck, then squeezed her ass with his other hand, “is the sexiest little thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Who happens to be carrying my beautiful baby.”
Kayla smiled and squeezed her vagina around him as hard as she could. Steve gasped. “You keep saying the right things, Mr. Johnson, and I’ll keep making those noises come out of you.”
The morning of May 9th, Kayla was five days past her due date and thought surely she was the same size as a house. She’d begun her maternity leave on her due date, but there was no sign that this baby was ever coming out. She rolled to her back for just a moment, savoring the feel of being in any position that wasn’t on her side, then she felt the need to pee. Again. It was 7:35 in the morning, and she’d already been up twice in the middle of the night to do the same thing. “Third time’s the charm,” she muttered to herself as she padded to the bathroom.
She changed her wet underwear from pee her daughter’s kicks forced out of her as she slept, laid back in bed, and immediately felt a rush of wetness as her daughter kicked. “Dammit! I just changed my underwear,” she whispered, assuming she’d let a little more pee go with this future NFLer’s kick. She, once again, went to empty her bladder and let her head loll back as she sat there, desperate to catch another hour or six of sleep. She absently grabbed some toilet paper and almost lost track of time in her sleepiness. But then with sudden clarity, she lifted her head and was very, very awake. Because she realized that she was still peeing. A steady stream that didn’t really stop. She reached down to feel the trickle then put her fingers to her nose to be absolutely sure. That wasn’t urine. “Oh my God. Steve!” she called out from down the hall. Her heavy sleeper of a husband didn’t rouse. “Steve!” she yelled louder, the corners of her mouth turning upward.
“Kayla?” he called out groggily, though with obvious concern that he was being called so urgently.
“My water broke! My water finally broke! The baby’s coming!” She heard the bedclothes rustle in sharp, quick movements.
“Where are ya, baby?” though he’d already instinctively headed for her.
“Bathroom! I’m stuck on the toilet!”
“What? What do you mean stuck?” he replied as she ran down the hall to her still completely naked. When Steve got there, the smile on her face was so wide and beaming that it sent a warm thrill of happiness from the depths of his belly all the way up his spine and out the top of his head. He smiled back at her from the doorway and said, “What, did you fall in?”
“No,” Kayla laughed, “but I don’t want to leak all the way back to the bedroom. We just got the floors really clean.”
Steve got a goofy look on his face. “I don’t get it, Sweetness. If it broke, what are you leaking.”
Kayla chuckled. “It’s not like in the movies, you don’t just gush and that’s it. My body’s going to keep making amniotic fluid until she’s out, and it’s just gonna keep trickling out of me.”
Now Steve’s happiness was joined by nervousness. “I don’t, uh, remember the trickling with Steph and Joe.”
“You don’t?”
“Not really.” Steve had started to compulsively adjust his patch, and Kayla wanted to be sure to catch a shower before they left for the hospital.
“Nevermind, I need a towel.” Steve turned and grabbed the hand towel that was sitting on the sink and handed it to her. Kayla rolled her eyes. “Can I please have a clean towel?” Now Steve rolled his own eye, ran to the linen closet, and came back with an enormous beach towel that said Hawaii on it. Kayla glared at him. “You’ve had two previous babies with me, right?” He just stared at her, his heart beating wildly in his chest. “I can’t really stick that one between my legs. I need to use it like a pad.”
“You do? Yeah, right … Sorry, I’m …”
“It’s ok.”
“You want a pad?”
Kayla cocked her head at him and narrowed her eyes. “Steve, I haven’t had a period in more than nine months, and even if I had, I use tampons.”
“But … I know we have some …”
“Yeah, under the sink in our apartment from when we had Joe. IN 2009!”
“Jesus,” he dropped his head in his hand. “I’m losin’ it!”
Ninety minutes later Kayla was in labor and delivery with a very long way to go, as she was only four centimeters dilated. Two hours after that the contractions had started to intensify, and two hours after that Kayla finally started having a really hard time with the back labor. She was sweaty and hot, and she was no longer smiling. She tried to smile, but it wasn’t in her anymore, she just wanted to have this baby.
Steve, on the other hand, was raring to go. His initial disorientation from his morning wake-up had passed, and he was pretty calm and collected. He rubbed Kayla’s undulating belly, talked to his baby, and stroked or rubbed Kayla anywhere she wanted that would make her feel better. He rubbed her neck, scratched her back, massaged her feet, and snuck her several sips of water.
“You’ve only ever been allowed to have ice chips,” he said.
“I’m a doctor, now gimme the f*cking water!” Steve did what he was told.
Word spread through the family that Kayla was in labor, and they all descended upon University Hospital. Her parents came and went from her room quickly before beginning their happy vigil in the waiting room; Shawn gave his son-in-law a weird look combining pride with the stink eye before he left, which made Steve long for the relationship forever bound to 1979. Jo and Adrienne came and then planted themselves in the waiting room with the Bradys, and Roman visited then went off immediately to call Bo. Marcus came, her best friend through the years, Carrie, even called. They all came for the birth of Kayla’s first baby, including one person she wasn’t expecting. Kimberly.
When the sister she’d both looked up to but also struggled to be as good as in her father’s eyes walked into the room, Kayla’s stressed demeanor softened. They’d started out their pregnancies with excitement – forced on Kayla’s end at first, genuine shortly thereafter. But Kimberly no longer had a baby to show for it. Despite Kayla’s best efforts, she’d failed to save her sister’s baby. Not that she didn’t try. Her memory was fuzzy of this time, because her original timeline had her focusing entirely on herself. But she remembered Kim trying to get her through her rape while Eve was wreaking all kinds of havoc. The timing of when Eve would do what was unclear to her, but she knew it was all right around now. So she warned Kim ahead of time that Eve was a prostitute for Nick Corelli and that she was unstable and had serious issues. She made Kim promise to get Eve help and not do anything on her own. Kayla had to be careful how she doled out this information, no easy task with Kim’s razor sharp mind and empathetic nature, but Kayla successfully gave her just enough to avoid a truly hard line of questioning. Kayla thought she could change this for the better, and she almost did; but it was not, apparently, what fate had in store. Much of Eve’s life went differently, but the girl’s underlying issues didn’t change, and she simply found other ways to get into trouble. Kayla was horrified to see that the effect was actually worse than what she’d gone through originally, and the stress on Kim’s family was too much. This time Kim slipped on some ice in her fourth month while running after Eve, who’d stormed off after a fight with her step-mother, and she’d lost the baby anyway. Kim was devastated, and Kayla cried all day when she’d learned it happened. But Kimberly loved her sister dearly, and her loss did not stop her from fawning all over her baby sister during her pregnancy.
Now that she was sitting here at Kayla’s bedside holding her hand through a few contractions while Steve foraged for a little food, Kayla’s emotions kicked into high gear and stayed that way for the remainder of her labor. When Steve returned and Kim – the second to last of their visitors before their baby finally arrived – had gone, Kayla was in a full-on panic. She’d kept it inside while Kimberly was in the room, but now that it was just she and Steve, she let loose. The fear they’d both pushed away so that they could concentrate on the here and now roared into Kayla, and then into Steve at the sight of it roaring into her. He tried to calm her down, but eventually he needed someone to calm him down, too. The excitement and joy that they were about to meet their baby was struggling to push through the abject fear that they wouldn’t make it before she arrived. They were hyper-aware of themselves and their surroundings, waiting for the telltale tug at their diaphragms that, unbeknownst to them, was not going to come today. As a result, Kayla was desperate to push her out, but she still had two more centimeters to go, and Steve was desperate that Neil give her something to make those two centimeters come a lot faster.
Neil ushered Steve out of the room and put his hand on his shoulder. “Steve, you realize that just because she’s fully dilated and effaced does not mean that the baby’s just going to come on out, Kayla still has to push her out, and that may take time, too. Maybe hours.” This didn’t make Steve feel better at all, not because of the message, itself, but because he knew this already and had now had it up to here.
“It’s not my first time at the rodeo, Neil!” Neil actually took a small step back at the visceral reaction he’d unintentionally provoked. “You dilate and efface, and Kayla will get her out!” Steve shouted in the hallway outside of Kayla’s room. “Just do it, man, she’s been beggin’ you for three weeks! She’s late, she’s in pain, we want our baby! Just help her!”
“What on earth is going on out here?”
Alice Horton was wearing her red volunteer uniform holding a pastry box of something that smelled really freaking good. The part of Steve led by his nose hoped they were donuts and that they were for him and Kayla.
“Steven, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but—why, your voice carries.”
Steve rubbed at his temple and plowed a hand through his hair. He was wearing a tight, black t-shirt, jeans that weren’t as snug as the ones he used to wear during this time, and a grimace that made Alice want to calm him down.
“Hello, Alice,” Neil said with an edge that wasn’t really like him, but Steve was really pushing him. “Steve needs a good dose of reason. Maybe you can help me out and find one. I’ll be back.”
Steve felt bad, he knew his outburst was unfair, but he was now as panicked as Kayla was. “Neil, I’m sor—”
“Just calm down. I know you’re worried about being a first time dad.”
If only.
“But get a grip, ok? Kayla needs you.” And with that he left him to Alice.
Steve looked at her and worked the muscle in his jaw, trying to get hold of himself. Neil just didn’t understand. How could he? All Steve wanted was to hold his daughter in his arms. He wanted to hold Kayla while she held their baby. He didn’t want to come all this way to lose it all, and now that it was within such close reach, each minute without a baby was an inherent threat of a lifetime without one. Alice Horton saw all this through the window of Steve’s eye and put a hand on his arm, just as she’d done so many jumps ago when another version of her helped get him the antidote to the atropine. And for the second time Steve felt comforted by this woman. His mother that he loved was just around the corner waiting for news of her first grandchild, but it was Alice Horton that for whatever reason he was mentally reaching for.
“Steven. It’s going to be alright.” Her wise and watery eyes pierced him with her reassuring gaze, and he did, indeed, calm down. “Now you take it from me. Alright?” Steve nodded “Now, I’ve made you and Kayla a batch of donuts, how about I drop them off, give Kayla a little motivation?”
When Kayla saw Alice walk in her first reaction was to be positively annoyed at yet another visitor. It wasn’t so bad at first, but now she looked and felt physically and mentally unviewable and didn’t want anyone that wasn’t Steve or a member of her birthing team walking in that door. But the moment Alice opened her mouth, Kayla felt soothed. Reassured. Alice sat right down on Kayla’s bed and took her hand. “Hello, Kayla.”
“Mrs. Horton. Hi.” She was breathing heavily. “Ah … thanks for coming.”
“Tom called to let me know another Brady baby – and Johnson,” she added turning kindly to Steve,” was on the way, and I thought I’d make you some donuts to eat after all this hard work is done.”
Kayla laughed genuinely. “The hard work hasn’t really come yet, I haven’t been able to push.”
Alice narrowed her eyes slightly and looked upon Kayla with interest. “You know a little about that kind of work, don’t you?”
Kayla dropped her smile and froze. Steve held his breath as the two women regarded each other in guarded scrutiny. Kayla didn’t know what to say and was so tired of maintaining the front that she actually felt a chaotic sort of relief that maybe Alice knew that this wasn’t her first baby. How she possibly could have was a mystery, the whole concept was completely irrational, but what the hell. Why not? Kayla’s eye flickered to Steve, and in that instant he knew she was about to tell Alice the truth. He didn’t try to stop it, he just let it unfurl, because he didn’t know what the alternative was.
“Yes, I do.”
“I had five, you know. I didn’t know what I was in store for when I had Tommy, but you’re a nurse. You’ve helped deliver so many babies, you know exactly what kind of work is coming.” Steve let out the breath he was holding and collapsed into the chair opposite Kayla’s bed. Kayla let her mouth open slightly. What was she thinking? Of course, Alice Horton didn’t know that this wasn’t Kayla’s first baby. Yet … the look on Alice’s face was making her very uncomfortable, even as it was putting her at ease. “Kayla … there’s something about you that I can’t put my finger on, but it’s the same look in your eye that your young man over my shoulder there had out in the hallway. You’re different.”
“She’s in labor,” Steve said.
“Yes, well I—well, that, too. Is there something you need to talk about?” Then she turned on the bed to look back at Steve. “Either of you?” Steve glanced at Kayla, who shrugged. “Something is going on, here, I can tell.”
Steve chuckled. “Mrs. Horton, you feelin’ any déjà vu?”
“Déjà … well, no. Should I be?”
Only if you remember a conversation you and I never had in this timeline. “No,” he shook his head. “Baby, I’ve gotta have one of these.”
“Go ahead,” Kayla grinned ever so slightly. Steve took out a donut and ate it in three huge bites.
“Mrs. Horton, we’re fine, here. We’re just … havin’ a baby … and we’re real scared.”
Kayla’s heart went out to her husband. Steve got scared plenty, but he never told people about it. He’d tell her, he’d even tell Marcus and Bo. But Steve did not admit fear like this to people like Alice Horton.
“So, we’re not really ourselves right now. But you’ve helped a lot.”
“I have?”
He smiled. “Settle something for me. If I came to you and gave you a message to keep like a secret that you couldn’t tell anyone but Kayla, or she did the same thing and you could only tell me, would you do it?”
“Well, of course, I would. But … well, I can’t see why you’d need to.”
“Hypothetically. What if the message sounded crazy. Would you still do it?”
“Well, you have to remember, I’ve seen people come back from the dead in this town, so crazy isn’t always what it seems.”
“Told you, baby,” Steve said.
“Yes, you did – OH!” Another contraction was starting, and this one hurt like hell.
Alice didn’t even ask what that exchange was all about, she just stood up slowly on her aging legs and gently gave the hand she was still holding to Steve, who replaced Alice on the bed. The Horton matriarch had been through so many births that her natural response was to put a hand on both of their shoulders and look down kindly on them as they rode out the wave. When it was over, she squeezed them both and repeated what she said to Steve in the hallway. “It’s going to be alright.” And the look in her eye was full of kind wisdom. The minute she was out the door, Kayla exhaled heavily.
“I think we picked a really good secret-keeper.”
Steve took a beat, then said, “You think she … knows?”
“I wasn’t sure there for a minute. But no. But I think you’re right. I think if we did tell her that she wouldn’t think we were insane.”
“You … wanna tell her?”
“That would be a no. No more visitors, ok?”
Steve rubbed Kayla’s belly, then kissed her lips tenderly. “Ok. How are you doin’, baby?”
“OH, HERE’S ANOTHER ONE!”
That was the last they would reference the surreal conversation with Alice Horton. The next time Neil walked in, Kayla was fully dilated and fully effaced, her need to push was strong, and elation finally kicked fear’s ass. They were having a baby, and Kayla knew from what her body was telling her that they were having her right now. She took Steve’s hand, felt the pressure of a baby that wanted out, and Steve supported her with his body and his kisses as she bore down and pushed as hard as she could.
Eighteen minutes later at 4:11 in the afternoon, Steve and Kayla Johnson’s third child was born.
Emily Gwendolyn Johnson did not come into the world screaming. She entered it with a very calm serenity that only the very oldest of souls possess when they make their one-way trip from their mothers’ wombs. She certainly cried out when Neil Curtis flicked the bottom of her foot with his finger, her first gulp of air filling her lungs and then exiting them in a cry that made her parents weep with joy. But that cry was not Stephanie’s shriek, nor was it Joey’s silence. It was something very unique that they had yet to experience, because this was a baby they’d had yet to experience. And this baby was filled with wisdom the moment she arrived. She didn’t know it, of course, she was just a baby. But her parents did. The moment they looked into her beautiful eyes, they knew it.
Their daughter had the head full of curly red hair that they knew she would, a round face that almost completely matched her brother’s, and a small brown freckle above the left corner of her plump cupid’s bow lips. They both whimpered and cried uncontrollable tears as Neil placed her calmly into Kayla’s waiting arms. Steve wrapped his right arm around Kayla’s shoulders and brushed her damp hair off her forehead as he slipped his left pinky into his daughter’s hand. She instinctively engaged her grasp reflex and held on tight. She was the exact baby that they’d both dreamed about. It was inexplicable, but it was so. She was beautiful, and she was theirs. They both cried hard tears of unqualified, utter joy as the unconditional love surged through them for this unplanned, unexpected, most precious product of their undying love for each other. The heightened emotions that were an ever-present side effect throughout each jump were doing a real number on them as they held their tiny, minutes-old daughter in their hands. They were overcome with love and devotion. To her. To each other. And to their other children in their rightful timeline.
“She’s so beautiful, Kayla,” Steve cried. “God, baby, she’s so beautiful.”
“She is, Steve,” Kayla sobbed. She leaned her lips down to kiss her little forehead and traced her finger down her tiny little nose. “Oh, Steve …”
Neil Curtis had delivered a lot of babies and watched a lot of joy from a lot of new moms and dads. He’d never seen, however, such depth of awe as what he was witnessing in Steve and Kayla. He felt moved. Like he was privileged to be watching an intimate moment that he’d intruded upon. He needed to let the nurses measure and clean her up and do her one-minute APGAR test, but he kept his head down to tend to Kayla’s umbilical cord so he could give them a few more moments before the two-minute mark rolled around.
“Hey there, Littlest Sweetness,” Steve said with more control. “I’m your papa.” The baby girl’s grip increased, and Steve let another tear fall. “This here’s your beautiful mama.”
“Hi sweet girl. We’ve been waiting for you.” Kayla kissed her, again, then let a small sound of profound awe escape from her throat. “For a real long time.”
It was coming up on two minutes, and the nurses had to do her APGAR. “Baby needs a name,” Neil said quietly as he reached for her. Kayla tore her eyes away and gave her husband a very knowing look as the nurses quickly did what they needed to do.
“Emily,” Steve said as he wiped his cheeks on each shoulder. “We’re naming her Emily.”
“Emily Gwnedolyn Johnson,” Kayla added. Then she stroked Steve’s wet cheek. “Is that ok? Gwendolyn?” she whispered, “the ‘G’ for Gideon?”
Steve nodded, his face twisting with such heavy emotion that he couldn’t stop. He and Kayla identified so closely with Emily and Gideon; naming their daughter after them felt right. “It’s perfect, Sweetness.” He kissed her temple, her cheek, her lips, and their tears joined on their cheeks as they nuzzled each other with the deepest love they’d ever known.
“Thank you, Steve,” Kayla said breathily. “Thank you for giving me this beautiful daughter.”
Steve ran his knuckle down Kayla’s face. “You’re the one who gave her to me, Sweetness.” Neil came back with her and announced that baby Emily was 7lbs, 3oz, 19 and a half inches long, and had a perfect APGAR score. Their old friend handed Steve his daughter, and he locked his eye with her surprisingly alert ones. He saw immediately that they were his own eyes looking back at him.
Kayla stroked Steve’s hair as she watched him look at his daughter. “We gave her to each other,” she said. Steve nodded and kissed the top of Emily’s red-haired head.
And so it was that on May 9, 1988, Steve and Kayla’s third child was born into a timeline that knew only that she was the first.